no_thanks

Probably the loan from his mom that inelegant investor pointed out, right?

Good idea, and I would be interested in giving it a go, but the issue would be buying Frank's shares and not InelegantInvestor's :) I might send him an email though just to see.

Anyone doing KCLI?

A similar company in Sweden. Interesting. https://www.google.com/finance?q=STO%3AVIT-B&ei=ok34VYLPOYOBmAGxmKLYBg

Googled the title: Takeaways: The Perseus Division of Constellation Software Inc. is poised to become a major real estate software provider with its pending Market Leader acquisition. The company has been in the real estate space for six years; it owns four real estate software firms, including website provider Z57. Perseus’ parent company is a large global software provider best known for its transit software, Volaris. The Perseus Division of Constellation Software Inc., which entered into an agreement to buy Market Leader for $23 million last week, is poised to become a real estate software powerhouse. A few days before, the Toronto-based software giant snapped up another real estate software provider, Zurple, Launched 11 years ago, Perseus is a subsidiary of Constellation Software Inc. and currently serves approximately 3,000 brokerages and 35,000 agents with a rapidly growing portfolio of real estate agent software, which includes mobile and desktop websites, mapping solutions, lead management and voice-response tools. Perseus powers the websites for its two biggest brokerage clients, Howard Hanna Real Estate and Coldwell Banker United, Realtors, under the “Constellation Web Solutions” brand. Real estate brokers and agents hungry for website, customer relationship management and marketing software will soon have a big new provider in Perseus and Constellation. Real estate brokers and agents will soon have a big new software provider in Constellation’s… CLICK TO TWEET The firm’s recent acquisitions extend its goal for real estate software domination, said Perseus’ president, Dexter Salna. The company seems to be deploying a roll up strategy to fuel its growth. Perseus rebranded from “Constellation Homebuilders Systems” last year and owns 34 firms that offer software to companies in eight different industries including paper processing, homebuilding, education and health care. It has grown its homebuilder software into a market leader in 11 years; 40 percent of the nation’s top 200 homebuilders use its software, Salna said. He has similar hopes for Perseus’ real estate division. Dexter Salna Dexter Salna Salna declined to delve into the specifics of Perseus’ Market Leader play, as the acquisition hasn’t closed yet (it’s expected to close early in the fourth quarter). Market Leader — which provides real estate CRM, lead generation and marketing tools to a customer base of over 100,000 agents — has enterprise accounts with the nation’s largest franchisor and largest brokerage: Keller Williams Realty and NRT LLC. Perseus first jumped into the real estate software game with its 2009 purchase of assets for Move Inc.’s real estate website firm, “The Enterprise,” which brought it vendor relationships with MLSs covering approximately 90 percent of the nation’s listings. A year later, it acquired the real estate customer relationship management platform Birdview. In 2013, it bought Z57, which currently powers lead generation websites for 6,500 agents. Although its real estate software holdings are multiplying, Perseus — following its parent company’s model — has no plans to merge them, Salna said. Instead, it will grow them as separate units and support different client bases with different brands, even if there’s some overlap. However, the firms share best practices and other resources, such as the MLS vendor relationships, he said. Constellation Software is an international provider of market-leading software and services to a select number of industries. Its mission is “to acquire, manage and build market-leading software businesses that develop specialized, mission-critical software solutions to address the specific needs of our particular industries.” With its global reach, it has over 30,000 customers operating in over 30 countries, employing 9,200 workers and generating consolidated annual revenues exceeding $1.6 billion.

Earnings are out. Albert G. Lowenthal, Chairman and CEO commented, "Operating results for the period were affected by a general slowdown in market activity affecting both our Private Client and Capital Markets results. This was partially offset by improved results from Investment Banking. Operating results were also favorably impacted by a significant reduction in provisions related to legal and regulatory matters compared to the same period last year. The Company will continue to invest in its people and technology to further its culture of compliance throughout the enterprise. We were also pleased with the continued strong performance of our Commercial Mortgage Banking business. Our asset management and fee-based business remained strong as a result of the high level of assets under management during the period." http://www.newswire.ca/en/story/1578376/oppenheimer-holdings-inc-reports-second-quarter-2015-earnings-and-announces-quarterly-dividend

Right, especially when the investment goes through double special entities. ;) Anyway, my point is that WELX is $6M company. A company at a size where it should be looking to grow its main business and not diworsify into unrelated ventures. Sure, it has extra cash. Great. Deploy it in your main business or related businesses. WELX is not FRMO. It is not a company whose charter is capital allocation to unrelated businesses. If they want to change to be capital allocator, they perhaps should talk to Prasad who is doing it correctly: you tell your investors that now you are no longer a medical device company and instead you are capital allocator. Apparently in Canada you also need shareholders approval. I'm fine with just a press release. Can the Murray Stahl defenders show me such press release from WELX? Anyway, this possibly should not be an answer to you, since you have not looked at the company in detail. Take care. Having talked to someone close to this (entire situation, FRMO, WLEX etc) I would say there is more and less than meets the eye here. I'd be wary of trying to extrapolate something that isn't. I think they call that statement a riddle wrapped in an enigma :) Thanks for the help in understanding this though (not being sarcastic, really thank you).

Ok, I should have read a bit more before I jumped to a conclusion. The completely unrelated business that doesn't sound great, or have steady profits with a high tax rate to untilize the NOLs just seemed really out there. But how much optionality or scale can there be in a traveling exhibit... I passed on Premier Exhibits the first time...

wtf...

Thanks everyone, appreciate the tips. I just put us on the waitlist at Noma, and will look into Osteria Francescana tonight. If you are ever traveling to Atlanta, Georgia, let me know! We are really excited about this, and have been saving up for a while for a big trip before we have kids. It is kinda wild that I only heard of Airbnb two years ago, and we are using it exclusively for this trip. We are going to be meeting and staying with two friends in Copenhagen, and then all going to Florence together and meeting two more friends. We are saving so much money sharing apartments as opposed to hotel rooms. Its a brave new world.

hi all, My wife and I are getting to take a trip starting Aug. 21 in Dublin, and spending about four days in each of these cities. I would love to meet up with (almost :)) any of you or hear of any advice or tips for these cities. Thanks!

sounds like you have had some personal experience with him or something. what makes you so confident?

HCC Insurance just got bought at 1.9 times book. Pretty insane price. The article says 1.14 is the median price for mergers in the last 5 years. I wonder how similar Trans Re is to HCC. I will try and read more tonight after work. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-06-10/tokio-marine-buys-hcc-for-7-5-billion-in-its-biggest-takeover

I the reason not to buy it at 1x book is that it can be bought lower at times. I bought it at 0.91x book a year or so ago And that was when book was lower. As Jurgis mentioned, this is a slow compounder - you can read their annual reports- they are happy with 8% compounded. MKL and other comparable shave been compounding at low double digit rates and over time that makes a huge difference. I think Y is extraordinary conservative and many be a good stock for conservative investors (I still own some) but there are most likely better (higher return) opportunities out there. I for one would buy such a stock only when it's definitely cheap. Thanks, I appreciate the response. That is a good point. I guess I was just thinking that with the merger activity in the industry, it was a safe bet. I guess we will see, but I imagine you are right and this might not be the best idea. Seems safe though. *Edit - I should add that I already own a bunch more MKL than Y.

Just curious why someone wouldn't buy Y at 1x Book. I read about surplus reserves building up in the industry, but I don't really know what that means. Thanks.